A GIRL CAN CHANGE HER MIND, CAN’T SHE?
I got a letter from Joanne saying she’s coming for a visit. Sounds like fun to me. For the last eight months I’ve been living on the island of Maui, half the time alone in a tree house that I built myself on the top of a pua and the other half on Makena Beach with an assortment of real nuts. In her letter she says that since she’s busy she’ll only come for one week. She wants to spend 2 days with yours truly in my treehouse. Then 2 days with Claire, a friend of hers and an ex-lover of mine. A girl that I brought to the island from San Francisco with me, who after a couple months with me, found her own true love then moved in with him and promptly got preggars. And then 2 days with Leo The Libra, an ex-lover of hers who also now lives here. I really don’t understand the part about her being busy seeing as all she does is deal dope and vitamins but hey, 2 days with the ever fun loving anything goes party till ya puke Joanne is worth a week with anyone else. I start planning for the 2 days of outrageous fun.
On the day she’s flying in I get to the airport with a plumaria lei that I made for her and await her arrival. There she is! She runs up to me, jumps into my arms and gives me a giant hug telling me how happy she is to be here in Hawaii and to see me. I say, “Aloha” placing the lei around her neck and she gives me a big wet one.
As we’re waiting for her bag, Claire and her boyfriend come up to us and say hi. Joanne gives them the same treatment she gave me. They tell her their van is waiting outside ready to take her up to their A-frame in Haiku. Joanne turns to me saying she hopes I don’t mind if she spends the first 2 days with Claire.
I tell her no problem.
Joanne retrieves her bags and we all head to Claire’s van. I ride with them part of the way until we get to the turn off for my pua. On the ride Joanne and I make plans to meet in 2 days. They drop me off. See ya then.
In the morning on the appointed day, Joanne and I meet at the juice bar in Pahia. She tells me that after the first evening she was bored out of her mind. All Claire and her boyfriend wanted to do was hang out and bask in the glow of Claire’s pregnancy. They did have some grass to smoke but there wasn’t anybody around to fuck. She tried calling Leo but he wasn’t home, and since I didn’t have a phone, she was stuck.
I tell her all that’s over now. Because, first were going to Little Makena for some nude ocean swimming/sunbathing that will include a whole bunch of tequila drinking and pakalolo smoking with a pack of stone crazies. Then tomorrow we’ll hitch over to Hana side for some naked waterfall swimming/sunbathing which will include eating a shitload of majick mushrooms and be all by ourselves. I tell her that in the next 2 days she is going to not only get fucked good, but she’ll get really fucked up as well. Joanne’s ready for it. We hit the road hitching toward Makena Beach.
Makena goes as planned. We party all day under the sun on the sand and in the surf with the other loony’s, drinking and smoking. Then we party most of the night under the stars on the beach with a bonfire blazing away. Next morning we’re a bit hung over but we’re young, and we’re pro’s, so it’s a little hair of the dog and we’re ready to roll. Joanne and I walk out to the dirt road and stand there waiting for a ride. And here’s one now.
It’s a Latino looking guy driving a Jeep. He stops, we get in and introduce ourselves. He asks if we know the island very well. I certainly do and ask him what he wants to know. Can he drive all the way around Maui? With a 4-wheel drive we can, I tell him. So it’s off we go around the backside of the island on a dirt road that’s sometimes there and sometimes not. We take our time and stop when anything catches our fancy. As we’re driving we chat. He tells us he’s an Indian agent in Amazonia in Brazil. It’s his job to search out indigenous peoples in areas that are going to be developed by timber, farming and mining interest, then he tells them their choice; It’s either vacate their land and relocate to a reservation or die. Because they will be killed on sight by the immigrants. I ask if he isn’t horrified by his job. He tells me no, somebody’s got to do it and besides, he is giving the Indians a chance to relocate. If it was up to the newly arrived, why they’d just kill all the Indians off with no warning at all.
A couple hours later we reach The 7 Sacred Pools just west of Hana. This is the place; waterfalls and majick mushrooms. We depart the Jeep and set up my tent. Then we go in search of the wild shrooms. Finding some we scarf them down. After, we head over to the Sacred Pools, feeling the shrooms take hold on our walk there. We spend the day swimming nude in the cool water under a hot sun. When it gets dark we mosey over to my tent. It was a fun day but we’re tired so after a little screwing around, we crash out.
Next morning we hitch to Hana for some breakfast then onward to Pahia, where Joanne tells me, she is suppose to meet Leo. He’s not there. She’s a little irritated. She wrote him with instructions of when and where to meet her. She calls. No answer. We wait. She tries again, and later, again. By 3 o’clock she’s ready to hang it up. Joanne turns to me and says, “Well Tai, it looks like it’s just you and me. So what’s next?
I tell her; The Mighty Haleakala. A 10,000+ foot extinct volcano that we can hitch up to the rim then hike down into its extinct caldera. A day in, spend the night, a day out. Then a day to rest up at my tree house and she’ll be ready to fly home. Sounds good to her, let’s go! As we’re hitching to Haleakala I ask her if she’s so hot to see Leo then why don’t she just change her plane ticket and stay longer, maybe she can contact him later. She tells me she has too much going on in the City and besides, if Leo can’t make time to see her, then fuck him!
We get to the top of Haleakala, check out the magnificent view then descend into the crater. We hike to the southeast end where there’s a bunkhouse to crash in. After we’re there awhile 3 Hawaiian cowboys , who’ve been hunting goats, ride up. They dismount telling me they’ve reserved the bunkhouse for the night. However, one look at Joanne, who is sunning topless, and they say they’ll be happy to share not only the bunkhouse but their food, booze and weed as well. Everyone is happy. The cowboys break out the liquor and pot then set to cooking. By sundown the food is ready so we smoke a pre-dinner joint then scarf down the grub.
After a post dinner doobie Joanne says she has a surprise. She’s been saving a gram of coke for a special occasion and this looks like it. She chops it up, makes some real fat lines and every body commences to snorting. A couple hours later the coke, grass and booze is finito, and so are we all. All we can do is crawl into our bunks and fall into a deep drug induced sleep.
Very early the next morning the cowboys are awake and making breakfast. Joanne and I would prefer to spend more time in the sack but the cowboys are just too noisy and anyway, the cooking fumes are making us feel queasy so it’s get up and shake out the cobwebs. After breakfast the cowboys bid us adios and go in search of some game. Joanne and I start hiking northwest to the lower rim to get out of the crater. By early afternoon we are on the road that leads back down the volcano and by then we’re feeling pretty good. Within a few minutes a car stops. Inside is a nice looking Hawaiian couple who look to be in their late 20’s. They offer us a ride. They tell us they’re here on vacation from Oahu then ask if we’d like to party with them. Well, why not! Our hangovers have abated so once more we are ready to rock.
We stop at the first restaurant/bar we come to and order drinks all a round. When you’re drinking in Hawaii, the pupu’s are free. It’s not just pretzels and peanuts either, it’s real cooked dishes, plus the more you drink the more you get. The proprietors are smart, they know the more you eat, the more alcohol you can consume. Anyway, after a few rounds we get back in the car and head down the mountain. We stop at a store for some beer and muchies then drive to the State Park on the beach at Pahia for a bit of outdoor drinking. By late afternoon we are all getting fairly toasted.
I tell the Hawaiians that Joanne and I are going to have to leave. We have to hitch up to Haiku before it gets much later or else it’s too hard to climb up the pua to my tree house in the dark.
They tell me we can’t leave yet, the party’s just beginning. So how about this; we go back to their hotel in Wailuku with them, have dinner then drink the night away. And when it’s time to crash, well, we can all sleep in their hotel room in the same bed, it’s king size!
I agree. Not only is it a brilliant idea but it sounds like a hell of a lot of fun. Why, who knows what might transpire in that big bed? I ask Joanne if she’s up for it.
She says she really wants to see Leo, so she’ll try to call him one last time. She had been calling Leo’s number every time we passed a phone, and if he doesn’t answer this time then it sounds like a plan to her. She calls.
No answer. We’re on. Let the games begin!
We eat. We drink. We party. By around 9 o’clock we’re still in the restaurant we had dinner in but we are getting real friendly with one another. There are games of footsie going on under the table with arrant touches above. The talk becomes about how late it’s getting. Must be about time to hit the sheets. Joanne excuses herself to go to the toilet. When she comes back she tells me she has to talk to me. I get up and follow her into the hall. There she tells me that she’s finally gotten hold of Leo and he wants to see her just as bad as she wants to see him. In fact, he’s coming to get her right now so she’s splitting. She’s going to wait outside under the portico.
I ask her what about tonight with the Hawaiians?
She’s sorry but she wants to see Leo. I get pissed telling her that in the park she said she had made up her mind! She was going to forget all about Leo and spend the night partying with the Hawaiians and me.
She gives me a little pout saying, “Well Tai, this is my last night on Maui and I want to spend it with Leo. And anyway, a girl can change her mind, can’t she?”
I want to argue with her but I know it’s useless so I just say, “Whatever.” Then I ask, “What about the Hawaiians.”
Joanne says she going out to the portico, I can do what ever I want.
I think, ‘that’s pretty chickenshit of you Joanne to at least not to tell the Hawaiians ‘thanks for the nice time, but I got to go’ as I turn and go back into the restaurant to inform the Hawaiians that Joanne has punked out and is leaving.
They look real disappointed. They tell me that they might as well finish their drinks and go to bed. I walk away leaving them alone at the table. I walk out onto the portico just as Leo pulls up. Joanne gets in and kisses Leo. He says hi to me then asks if he can drop me anywhere.
I tell him Haiku and get in the back seat.
Three days later I’m in Pahia doing some shopping when I see Joanne and Leo coming out of a restaurant. I walk up to them and ask Joanne what the hell is she doing here.
She tells me she’s changed her plane ticket to a week later so she could spend some time with Leo.
I ask her, what about being way too busy in the City selling pot to stay for another week. What will all her poor customers do without her?
She says, “I decided to stay longer, that’s all. The biz can wait.” She smiles, then she has the balls to say, “Maybe we can get together once more before I leave?”
I just shake my head in disgust as I turn and walk away thinking, ‘what a bitch!’
Joanne and I stayed friends for years after that, what had happen on Maui was, after all, no big deal. We had been very close friends for years and years. Whenever I passed through the City I usually stayed at Joanne’s place and we would party. Then for a few years due to my constant traveling in far away places I didn’t see her, through we did keep in touch by phone and letter.
The next time I saw her she had just found her newest true love, this time a woman, so Joanne became a lesbian. They live together in an apartment and the first time I visited every thing seemed fine, just like old times. We had a great time together. The second time I visited, a year later, everything changed. Together they’d purchased a house and had gotten 2 dogs. I called her telling her I would be in the City in a couple of days. She told me that she was way too busy to see me the coming weekend but to give her a call Monday morning and we’d get together. I called on Monday. She told me she was still too busy to see me in the A.M. but to come by around 4 in the afternoon. I arrived. Joanne let me in and took me directly to the back yard. There we chatted for all of a half hour before she told me that I had to leave. Joanne now had her gay lover, her gay life and her gay friends and well, she’d rather I not come around anymore. I left and have never seen or heard from her since.
This is something I do not understand: What is it with queers and Christians? Why do they feel they have to dump all their old long time friends when they convert to their new life. I swear, every single one of them that I’ve ever known before they turned are no longer my friends. I do have plenty of friends who happen to be gay but all of them I met and became friends with after they had already gay for awhile. I have no Christian friends, they all think I’m either a lost cause at best or just plain evil at worst. Can the newly gay and Christian feel so vulnerable and be so insecure in their new lifestyle that they actually fear we might be turn them back into a hetro or a heathen if they associate with any of us? I don’t know. All I know is that I’ve lost another friend. Oh well, c’est la vie.